The Master and Margarita (Penguin Classics) by Mikhail Bulgakov

By Mikhail Bulgakov

Mikhail Bulgakov's devastating satire of Soviet existence was once written through the darkest interval of Stalin's regime. Combining particular but interwoven parts-one set in historic Jerusalem, one in modern Moscow-the novel veers from moods of untamed theatricality with violent storms, vampire assaults, and a Satanic ball; to such somber scenes because the assembly of Pilate and Yeshua, and the homicide of Judas within the moonlit backyard of Gethsemane; to the substanceless, circus-like truth of Moscow. Its critical characters, Woland (Satan) and his retinue-including the vodka-drinking, black cat, Behemoth; the poet, Ivan Homeless; Pontius Pilate; and a author identified in basic terms because the grasp, and his passionate spouse, Margarita-exist in a global that blends myth and chilling realism, an crafty university of grostesqueries, darkish comedy, and undying moral questions.

even supposing accomplished in 1940, The grasp and Margarita used to be no longer released in Moscow until eventually 1966, while the 1st half seemed within the journal Moskva. It used to be a right away and enduring luck: Audiences spoke back with nice enthusiasm to its expression of inventive and religious freedom. This new translation has been produced from the total and unabridged Russian texts.

Mikhail Bulgakov's devastating satire of Soviet existence was once written through the darkest interval of Stalin's regime. Combining particular but interwoven parts-one set in historic Jerusalem, one in modern Moscow-the novel veers from moods of untamed theatricality with violent storms, vampire assaults, and a Satanic ball; to such somber scenes because the assembly of Pilate and Yeshua, and the homicide of Judas within the moonlit backyard of Gethsemane; to the substanceless, circus-like truth of Moscow. Its critical characters, Woland (Satan) and his retinue-including the vodka-drinking, black cat, Behemoth; the poet, Ivan Homeless; Pontius Pilate; and a author identified in basic terms because the grasp, and his passionate spouse, Margarita-exist in a global that blends myth and chilling realism, an crafty university of grostesqueries, darkish comedy, and undying moral questions.

even supposing accomplished in 1940, The grasp and Margarita used to be no longer released in Moscow until eventually 1966, while the 1st half seemed within the journal Moskva. It used to be a right away and enduring luck: Audiences spoke back with nice enthusiasm to its expression of inventive and religious freedom. This new translation has been produced from the total and unabridged Russian texts.

This quantity is one in a continual sequence of books ready through the Federal study department of the Library of Congress below the rustic Studies/Area guide application subsidized by means of the dept of the Army.

Describes the search of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania for self-determination, their fight to reestablish self sustaining statehood, and their makes an attempt to deal with the political, monetary, and social difficulties confronting them within the Nineteen Nineties.

In a brief reworking from 1936 — 7, Bulgakov brought the beginning of the Pilate story back to the second chapter, where it would remain, and in another reworking from 1937 — 8 he finally found the definitive title for the novel. In this version, the original narrator, a characterized ‘chronicler’, is removed. The new narrator is that fluid voice — moving freely from detached observation to ironic double voicing, to the most personal interjection — which is perhaps the finest achievement of Bulgakov’s art.

The latest Russian edition (1990) has removed the most important of those additions, bringing the text dose once again to Elena Sergeevna’s 1963 typescript. Given the absence of a definitive authorial text, this process of revision is virtually endless. However, it involves changes that in most cases have little bearing for a translator. The present translation has been made from the text of the original magazine publication, based on Elena Sergeevna’s 1963 typescript, with all cuts restored as in the Possev and YMCA-Press editions.

Berlioz looked around in anguish, not understanding what had frightened him. He paled, wiped his forehead with a handkerchief, thought: ‘What’s the matter with me? This has never happened before. My heart’s acting up ... I’m overworked ... ’5 And here the sweltering air thickened before him, and a transparent citizen of the strangest appearance wove himself out of it. A peaked jockey’s cap on his little head, a short checkered jacket also made of air ... A citizen seven feet tall, but narrow in the shoulders, unbelievably thin, and, kindly note, with a jeering physiognomy.